This necklace uses up the last of one strand of the dark gray-and-red Bloodstone, accented by some beautiful Garnet. I used gunmetal findings to finish, and this necklace kind of had a gothic feel, hence the name. Growing up, the gothic style kind of had an appeal for me (not the makeup, but some of the clothes and the colors), and those colors still draw me nowadays. This is one of those "multipurpose" necklaces. For me, it would be a short necklace; for most, a choker; and it is simple and practical enough even a guy might find it appealing to wear.
Name: Gothic Garnet
Price: $20
Length: 16.5 inches
These earrings are to match the necklace in the previous post. The wire links and the earwires are handmade. The pair took about an hour. I used the same smoky-gray and dark red Bloodstone as in the necklace.
Name: Blood and Silver earrings
Price: $15
Length: about 1.5 inches (from tallest part of earwire loop)
On my trip home this weekend, I came across some fascinating Bloodstone rounds. Unlike most Bloodstone I've seen, these were not the usual green spattered with red. The rounds, approximately 8mm (larger than I usually use), are a deep, smoky gray that borders on black with darker red spatter. I knew I just had to experiment with them, so bought two strands. This is the result of the first idea I came up with. This necklace is my second extreme wirework project--every link was hand made, as were the findings. This took at least three hours!
Name: Blood and Silver
Price: $35
Length: 22.5 inches
My Grandma's favorite color is aqua. Her birthday is in April, and because I don't get home as much as I'd like and knew this weekend might be the last in a few weeks to see her, I deliberately looked for something for her while I was at my favorite supplier. I had almost given up when I came across these small rounds, labeled Sea Blue Chalcedony. They are about as true an aqua as I've ever seen, beautifully clear, and perfect for my plan. I stayed up until 1am this morning making it, before driving back home today to see my Mom's work in a local quilt show. My Aunt and Grandma were there as well, so we all went out to lunch. As with a lot of my work, I kept it very simple and elegant, and accented with silver.
Name: N/A
Price: $25 (original not for sale; gift for Grandma)
Length: 18 inches, I think (forgot to measure)
So yesterday afternoon, accompanied by three companions, I made a trip home to my all time favorite store and got some supplies to both start new projects, and finish some long-standing ones. I was browsing through the different stone pendants and came across this beauty, labeled "Green Zebra Jasper." I've never heard of Green Zebra Jasper, and the Zebra Jaspers I have seen don't have a metallic quality to the stripes. This is one of the prettiest pieces of stone I've come across in a long time. I wanted it to stand on its own, so picked out a soft green fairy ribbon to complement it, and attached it with a triangular sterling silver jump ring. Both pendant and ribbon were a bit pricey, but I think the images show it was well worth it! I am strongly debating keeping this in my personal collection.
Name: Zebra Fairy
Price: $20
Length: 40 inch ribbon; pendant is 2 inches x 1.5 inches
Pair of earrings to match the previous necklace.
Name: Silver Skies
Price: $10; $35 for set w/ necklace
Length: see image with quarter for size comparison
I've had this Murano glass pendant for years, trying to figure out just what to do with it. Finally decided just to toy around with it and this was the result. Also made matching earrings (next post). This is a lot more silver than I usually use!
Name: Silver Skies
Price: $30; $35 for set (with earrings)
Length: 24 inches
These earrings almost used up all of my remaining magnesite. I think I have four of the pyrite-laced rondelles left.
Name: N/A
Price: $8
Length: about 1 inch dangle (see photo with quarter for comparison)
I had a few beads left over from the Bronze Lily necklace I made my sister this past year, and felt it might be nice to use them in a bracelet since I still had some gold metal seed beads to act as spacers. I had two different types (and dye lots) of the magnesite--the pyrite-laced rondelles and some tiny, more turquoise standard rounds with the black matrix instead of pyrite--so I used both for visual interest.
Name: Gilded Thread bracelet
Price: $8
Length: 8.5 inches
I made this yesterday evening, but couldn't get a decent picture of it under indoor lights. I've had this strand of blue goldstone chips since I bought it for my sister's birthday years and years ago (I bought two strands, actually, but only used one in the project at the time). The bracelet is fairly heavy, given the amount of stone involved and the size of the chips, but the sparkle and texture make it really fun.
Name: Blue Chip bracelet
Price: $10 (reason: amount of blue goldstone used)
Length: 4 loops
I've had this multicolor moonstone since early November, when my friend Tina and I made a trip to one of my favorite stores. Thought I'd try seeing what it looked like as a memory wire bracelet; jury's still out on if I will keep it this way. One thing I will note: moonstone is quite soft and doesn't handle reaming to make the holes bigger very well. This is the entire (expensive!) strand I had...only made three loops on the wire. Moonstone is neat in the fact that it's a bit pearly and the color rolls along the surface like cat's eye / fiber optic beads. I thought the silver complemented it quite well.
Name: N/A
Price: $20 (reason: cost of moonstone)
Length: 3 loops
I decided this morning I wanted to experiment with a tiny difference in my work. Usually when I make memory wire bracelets, I'm limited to seed beads or similar; most stone beads don't have large enough holes to string on memory wire. I decided, what the heck, I'd go through my bead boxes and see if I couldn't find some stone beads that would work. I'd been thinking of my peach adventurine for the last couple of days and how I hadn't done anything with it (purchased it well before Christmas), so I got it out and turns out it worked. I also don't use a lot of gold, but it went so well with the aventurine.
I thought a lot about my neighbor growing up, Lois, and how I remembered seeing her wear two colors a lot when I was a kid: peach and mint. The two go well together, so when I photographed the bracelet, I used my new dusty teal sweater as the backdrop. It's kind of a tip-of-the-hat to Lois and my childhood. Lois is my parents' age, and my sister and I used to dog-sit and mow her yard. Her husband, Jim, raises honeybees and does woodworking. We spent a decent amount of time over at their house or in the woods between theirs and ours. They're one of the sweetest, gentlest-natured couples I've had the honor to know.
Now all I need to do is make some lemon poppyseed bread like she made me while I was growing up...
Name: Peachy Keen memory wire bracelet
Price: $15 (reason: over a whole strand of peach aventurine)
Length: 5 loops
Last November, a friend of mine from work joined me in a jaunt to one of my favorite places. She'd never been to Von's, and I'd been raving about it. She picked out a nice piece of red tiger eye, and asked if I could turn it into a pendant like I did the dyed-pink quartz she'd brought me. I said sure, but that it would take me a while to come up with something to do with it.
Three months later...
After sifting through tons of wire-wrapped tumbled stone pictures, ideas, and resorting to watching some tutorial videos, this is what we wound up with.
Name: N/A
Price: $15 (approx.; it depends on size of stone, how much and what kind of wire used)
Length: semi-large tumbled stone
